Facebook Group: Fans of Barack Obama's Legislative Record

Over the weekend, I created a Facebook Group called "Fans of Barack Obama's Legislative Record." If you're a Facebook user, check it out (and note that you don't have to join the group to visit the site).

The goal of the group is to provide a convenient place for Facebook users to find and share information about Barack Obama's legislative record, in the wake of the attacks from the McCain-Palin campaign. Everyone's on Facebook 24-7 already - and the idea is that next time you're chatting with a friend about the election on Facebook's chat app, or having a long phone conversation with your grandmother who happens to live in a key swing state, you'll have a place to go for a quick talking point. The group page features a brief, but detailed, summary of Obama's legislative career, with links to more information about legislation he has sponsored or supported.

Obama's "Change" mantra would be nothing more than a campaign slogan without his strong record on ethics reform and government transparency - and we Obama supporters should not be surprised or offended that voters who are unfamiliar with his record may be skeptical. When it comes to rebutting the attacks on Obama's legislative record, we are the ones we've been waiting for.

(I'm also planning to post an extended version of the summary of Obama's legislative career here later this week).

UPDATED 10/21/08: Hyperlinked summary of Obama's record on outragedmoderates.org.

Thoughts on Palin's speech

The most striking thing about Palin's speech was that she used such a negative and petty tone in her introduction to the American people. As an Obama supporter, I was starting to worry that the McCain campaign had outsmarted everyone by picking a likable, sympathetic female candidate who would be almost impossible to challenge or attack without running the risk of alienating voters.

But her tone tonight may have insured that she's fair game from here on out. Some of her attacks were ridiculously hypocritical. The most embarrassing example had to be when she made fun of the columns that stood behind Obama during his acceptance speech - from a stage adorned not only with a replica of the Liberty Bell, but also with a massive Jumbotron which alternated between an American flag and images of other famous national landmarks!

There was also her attack on Obama's years as a community organizer (which Giuliani had already made fun of earlier in the night): "I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a community organizer, except that you have actual responsibilities." This line was a huge crowd pleaser, but it's a strange comparison for her to make. Obama worked as a community organizer between 1985 and 1988 - since then, he has attended law school, worked as a lawyer in Chicago, taught at the University of Chicago Law School, served as an Illinois State Senator for 8 years, and then served as a U.S. Senator for 4 years.

In contrast, Palin was still mayor of Wasilla until December 2006, when she was sworn in as Governor of Alaska. So when she mocked Barack Obama's experience level, she was comparing the job she held just 20 months ago to the job he held 20 years ago!

UPDATED 9/4/08:

The good news is that a lot of people seem to have had the same reaction to Palin's dismissive condescension. The Detroit Free Press asked a voter panel for reactions to the speech, and almost all of the panelists who identified themselves as independents were turned off.

Another thing I wonder about is whether the GOP is underestimating how distant and exotic Alaska seems to people east of the Mississippi, which is where most (but not all) of the major battleground states are. I think most people put Alaska in the same category as Obama's home state of Hawaii - and I think Obama would be a much less credible candidate if he was the junior Senator from Hawaii, rather than Illinois, a heavily-populated state that is home to Chicago, one of the major business capitals in the country. If you're a swing voter in Ohio, Pennsylvania, or Michigan, Chicago is a lot closer to home than Wassila.

Are we going to make another big election about small things?

I still don't know what to make of the Palin pick, but increasingly, I think it is a deliberate attempt by McCain to distract the electorate from the bigger issues, where the Democrats have an edge this time around. Why would anyone knowingly pick a VP with a four-month old baby and a pregnant unmarried teenage daughter, unless he thinks that the inevitable soap opera coverage would benefit the ticket? George Lakoff has the best analysis I've seen of the pick so far:

"The Palin Choice and the Reality of the Political Mind" [Huffington Post]

UPDATED 9/2/08:

On the other hand, after reading this New York Times article, maybe the McCain campaign just botched the whole thing completely:

"They didn’t speak to anyone in the Legislature, they didn’t speak to anyone in the business community," said Lyda Green, the State Senate president, who lives in Wasilla, where Ms. Palin served as mayor.

Representative Gail Phillips, a Republican and former speaker of the State House, said the widespread surprise in Alaska when Ms. Palin was named to the ticket made her wonder how intensively the McCain campaign had vetted her.

"I started calling around and asking, and I have not been able to find one person that was called," Ms. Phillips said. "I called 30 to 40 people, political leaders, business leaders, community leaders. Not one of them had heard. Alaska is a very small community, we know people all over, but I haven’t found anybody who was asked anything."

The current mayor of Wasilla, Dianne M. Keller, said she had not heard of any efforts to look into Ms. Palin’s background. And Randy Ruedrich, the state Republican Party chairman, said he knew nothing of any vetting that had been conducted.

State Senator Hollis French, a Democrat who is directing the ethics investigation, said that no one asked him about the allegations. "I heard not a word, not a single contact," he said.

Andrew Sullivan is right - the story here isn't about Palin, it's about what the pick says about John McCain, especially in contrast with the Obama campaign's cautious, research-intensive vetting process.